Letters to the Editor: 01.21.12

President Barack Obama's decision to reject TransCanada's permit application to build a 1,700 mile pipeline from Canada to Texas refineries demonstrates his hostility toward the oil industry and all related businesses.

In addition, we are dissing our good friends in Canada. Our loss will be China's gain since they have indicated a desire to purchase the Canadian oil that this president has rejected.

This should concern everyone who is employed by these industries. Our economy could not survive without the refineries and oil-related businesses.

Without them our city and surrounding municipalities would be devastated.

If this president was truly concerned about jobs he would have approved this project.

His own jobs council stated there was a great need not only for more oil, natural gas and coal, but also for energy infrastructure projects. Instead of pandering and listening to his money bundlers who have supported and received billions of dollars at taxpayer's expense for "green project" failures like Solyndra, he should have listened to his own analysts.

Talk is cheap! Saying you are doing everything in your power to create an environment for job creation and then killing a project that, by all estimates, would have created thousands of high paying jobs is the height of hypocrisy.

This only serves to make Americans more cynical about our supposedly intelligent and knowledgeable leaders.

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Esther Bonilla Read

Actions didn't remain local

This letter is in response to the Ricardo Chapa letter on Jan. 13 regarding Dr. Martin L. King and Dr. Hector P. Garcia ("Dr. King's legacy"). I disagree with Mr. Chapa's statement, "Dr. Hector Garcia involved himself in very laudable LOCAL advocacy work."

No action by man or woman is ever just LOCAL. It may begin locally but it never stays at that level. Think of a woman who refused to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Think of a man who stood in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square.

Then consider the action of a South Texas medical doctor who wrote to Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson regarding funeral protocol for the body of a Mexican-American soldier in a small neighboring town. That information became a national issue.

Dr. Garcia began hearing a variety of complaints from other returning soldiers. The result was the founding of the American G.I. Forum, and the organization spread to other states.

Obviously there was a need. Some of the issues veterans spoke of were the following: "The Small Business Administration refused to lend me money to start my own business." "I was told the bread company wouldn't hire Mexican-Americans as drivers." "I couldn't buy a house in a new neighborhood because it was 'restricted.'"

Macario Garcia, a recipient of the Medal of Honor in August of 1945, was refused service at a restaurant in Richmond, Texas, in September of the same year because of his ethnicity, medals notwithstanding.

Remember, these were the men who fought so that we might live in a free country, and yet they returned to their homes thinking they had preserved our freedoms only to be deprived of equal opportunities.

When the obvious injustices were addressed, good things began to happen to our "greatest generation." It took a while, but the impact is still being felt today and will continue to influence generations to come.

No, Dr. Hector Garcia's accomplishments never remained local. Just ask the children and the grandchildren of those veterans.